Lagos Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Ikeja has dismissed petitions filed by Alliance for Democracy (AD) and Labour Party (LP) challenging the victory of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Chairman of the tribunal, Justice T. T. Asua, dismissed the petitions on Monday.
Asua said the tribunal’s decision was based on the inability of the petitioners to file applications for pre-hearing conference after the close of pleadings within seven days as prescribed by law.
The three-man panel ruled that timely application for pre-hearing conference was a condition for the hearing of the petitions and that without the application for pre-hearing conferences, the petition cannot commence or get to the stage of judgement.
The panel noted that Section 285(4) of the Fourth Alteration to the 1999 Constitution was inapplicable because the timely application for pre-hearing conferences was a precondition in election petition matters.
Governorship candidate of AD, Owolabi Salis, and that of LP, Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi, had in their petitions challenged Mr Sanwo-Olu’s victory on the grounds that he is not competent to run as a governorship candidate in the election.
The petitioners claimed that the March 9 polls were marred by violence, voting irregularities and that Sanwo-Olu cannot vote or be voted for as he has no valid voter’s card.
